Reunions in Blood

Summary:

Originally on tumblr. This takes place immediately during and after the season 1 finale of Westworld. Major spoilers. Anyway, this is a “what if Logan was still on the Delos board even though William is majority shareholder” and so Logan was at the board visit to see Ford’s new narrative.

There may be a second chapter. Haven't decided.

Work Text:

Logan isn’t really surprised when Dolores kills Robert Ford and then opens fire on the Delos board. He’s not even that shocked when a zombie-like herd of robotic killers descend upon him. He is a little surprised that William looks so very pleased with himself despite one arm being dislocated and the other seeping blood from a bullet hole.

He can’t decide if his brother-in-law is just a psychopathic asshole or he lost his mind thirty years ago.

Back then, when William started his search for Dolores in a bloody robot murder spree, Logan had though that the other man was finally shedding his goody-two-shoes act and being who he really was. Logan had accused William of trying to steal his company, more angry about that than being stripped naked and tied to his horse’s saddle, and William had made no bones about his plan to take over. Logan tried to get his sister to end the engagement but it was to no avail. Juliet married William and William eventually became majority shareholder. And then his sister died. It was labelled an accident but Logan remembered how his niece blamed her father, how she believed her mother committed suicide to get away from William.

And then William went back into the park to look for that bloody maze.

Logan knows all of this because he kept the ties he could. He kept an eye on Juliet and her daughter, made sure to never lose his own hard earned shares of Delos. Now he regrets keeping those ties. He could have been anywhere but here, watching William lurk around a business dinner with a busted arm while Ford unravels his new narrative before announcing his retirement. A permanent retirement.

Logan isn’t surprised that it’s Dolores who starts the violence because Dolores was the starting point of the downfall of Logan’s entire world. He hates her so it’s natural to blame her. Although he doesn’t believe the robots are sentient. He thinks that Ford programmed all of this to happen. It’s the last act of an old man gone senile.

Is William old enough to have gone senile?

Logan has taken to hiding in the church when William bursts in, looking like he sprinted there, but still grinning cheerfully.

“What are you doing here?” Logan hisses. He doesn’t like to look at William. He’s still hurt over what William did to him and to Juliet and he’s angry that he’s still attracted to the man. Logan’s willing to admit that he probably wasn’t very nice to William when he first brought him to the park. He had wanted William to play the same games he wanted to: games of sex and murder and depravity. He wasn’t the type to take things from his sister or to hurt her. It was neither of their faults that they often liked the same things. But Logan just wanted to try William on for size and have his fun before he had to give him to Juliet for the rest of their lives.

But then there was Dolores.

And now there’s Logan and William in a church while people scream in the distance.

“Ah Logan, I didn’t know you were here.” William calmly says.

No, of course you didn’t, Logan thinks. William’s been playing at Cowboys and Indians again, unconcerned with the real world. He probably did not even care which board members were out there dying right now.

“Get your own hiding place.” Logan says instead.

“Oh, I’m not hiding.” William says. “I’ve simply come to deal with this-“ he indicates to the arm that’s bleeding –“and then I’m off to get my gun and hat. The real game’s started.”

“Real game? What game?” Logan asks. Wonders if he really wants to know.

“The one going on out there. Before, the hosts couldn’t play it. They were programmed to lose. But now we’ll find out who can really win.” William smiles. “The hosts are finally alive.”

Logan can see the old William in that smile. That young man is still in there, wanting to go on a real adventure and protect the girl. But Dolores was no girl. She was metal parts and programming. And still Billy wanted to save her from this world. He had convinced himself that she was alive and now he seemed to think all the hosts were alive.

And Logan now knows that he should have never brought William to the park in the first place. It was too intense for him, his grip on reality too thin. Something in Westworld had taken hold of a younger William and broken him, turning him into someone Logan couldn’t recognise.

And yet Logan knows that he’s going to help William with his injuries and he knows that he’s going to follow William around this place until Logan discovers an escape. No one knows the park better than William. William has scoured this place for the last thirty years and has done so as someone immersed in the world. He can shoot, he can fight and he knows these robots. Knows their names and their backstories and should have some ability to predict what they’ll do.

It’s a risky gamble but it’s all that Logan has. It won’t be long until one of the hosts finds him. With his luck it will be that bitch Dolores.

He wouldn’t mind a chance to see if Billy was still here instead of a lingering ghost in a stranger’s smile.